The Big C Word..

It’s sometime in April 2009 and one morning my wife and I noticed that my right testicle was somewhat swollen. It wasn’t hurting which was odd. Add to that I had started working out hard 6 months before April I automatically assumed it was just the being of a sports hernia. Plus, making matters worse was the fact that i had been laid off in January 2009 and was still out of work and I had no insurance as it expired in March. Once my work insurance had lapsed I elected not to get additional insurance because we were trying not to get any extra bills and just had enough money coming in to make ends meet. I even went so far as to sell my truck to Carmax so that we would not have that extra bill each month. So given all of that I just thought it had to be some type of hernia.

Six months had passed and we forgot about it; how I don’t know. We just forgot about it that is until we began our shag lessons. Somehow the movements involved with shagging apparently angered the cancer and caused it to swell up to four times its natural size. I thought after some research that it was an infection now but the next week the discomfort was just too much. Every moment caused me discomfort including trying to sit down, thus, alarming my wife and me. So on October 9, 2009, we waited for urgent care to open up and went as soon as they were open to see a doctor. The female doctor was alarmed at the size and immediately called to schedule an ultrasound on it. So we rushed over to Nash Healthcare to get my ultrasound. I registered with them and then was eventually taken back to have the ultrasound done.

Once back there, I had to drop my pants for another female nurse…this time so that she could put some COLD gel on my testicle to do the ultrasound. After 15-20 minutes of doing the ultrasound tests, they had everything they needed. She made sure her supervisor was happy with what images they got from the ultrasound and once they were I had permission to wipe all of the cold gel off of me as best I could.

Now that I was done, I had to walk back a 1/8th of a mile back to urgent care. Why? Because during the first part of the week we had made an appointment with our claims adjuster to look at the ceiling damage caused by as leaking sewer vent pipe. The end result was $750 dollars worth of damage of which we were responsible for $500 of that total. So with her waiting at the house with the claims guy, I walked back since I had no ride. Once there, I waited to be called back for the verdict. It wasn’t too long before I was back in the private room when they told me they were 99% sure it was cancer. I had no idea how to react. I asked if it could be ANYTHING else at all and the doctor said, “No.” Once I heard that, I doubt I had ever felt so devastated before.

They spent the next 30 minutes trying to find an urologist in my area as well as surrounding areas that could speak with us about the ultrasound and what to do next exactly. No appointment could be made until Monday as it was Friday and most of the offices were closing early simply because it was Friday. Thus, we had to wait all weekend to know whether or not I had cancer. So we decided to escape to Raleigh for the rest of the day/evening to escape reality.

Flash forward to October 12, 2009. The weekend has passed and it’s Monday and now time to meet with the local urologist to find out what he thinks about the results from the ultrasound. So after a brief chat the urologist actually said to me, “Let me see your testicles.” After careful analysis, he concluded that it was cancer and that it had to be operated on ASAP. He decided to give us a few minutes and let us mull over everything in the patient room.

So after 10 minutes of crying, he came back in to talk about what to do next. Surgery was the best and most logical route to go and the sooner the better. It just so happens that for that particular morning I had not eaten anything because we had no idea what they would need to do to me during my visit. Plus, we were taking a trip to NY that upcoming weekend as an early anniversary present to ourselves. So we came to the conclusion that the best time to do the surgery would be that day, Monday, October 12, 2009. An emergency appointment was made at the surgery pavilion for me to have emergency surgery at 1:30.

So we made sure to call everyone that needed to know about my surgery since I had pretty much kept everyone in the dark about what was going on. We also rushed back to the house to get Jenn’s late grandmother’s rosary beads so she would have them while I was in surgery. Next, we went to get signed in and get all of the paperwork handled. Yet, another time where I have to say, “No, no insurance to be filed.” Yay!

We then had to wait in the waiting room for an hour until my room was ready for me. So I had to get undressed and put on the lovely hospital gown that was so large. They came in to hook me up for an IV and for some reason she wanted to put it in my arm. Thus, she shaved it down and tried to put the IV in, but released the tourniquet too soon and blew it out. I have GREAT veins and have always been told that by every nurse so why she did what she did I have no idea. Talk about blood going everywhere! So she ended up putting the IV in my hand like usual. Finally, around 4pm or so, I get wheeled off to go have my “emergency” surgery. Once in the surgery room, I’m given some good stuff and out I go. I wake up an hour later and I’m groggy as hell and sore! An hour later I’m able to go home totally medicated. Here’s a tip, when you’re totally on meds after surgery, make sure there is NEVER a time you’re off your meds like say during the middle of the night. That first night was EXTREMELY painful for me when the pain meds wore off during the middle of the night.

Flash forward a week later and it’s time to have my follow-up appointment with Dr. Petrus after getting back from New York. Turns out it was in fact testicular cancer, but only stage one. He said he didn’t see any spreading of it, but there was only so much he could see during surgery so he wanted me to have a ct scan to be 100% sure. He also said that they don’t do biopsies because testicular cancer is one of the fastest spreading cancers due to the lymph nodes system. Also, he said even if I had gone back in April to get it looked at then the only way to be sure it’s cancer is to remove it.

And then he said the inevitable. I needed chemo; two rounds to be exact. That had never been mentioned before. For some reason, I thought the surgery was all I needed. But, after surgery the surveillance process usually yields a 35% return of the cancer as another form of cancer such as lung cancer. With chemo though there would only be a chance of a 1-2% that it would return. So just like we choose to start eating healthy, obviously we knew what had to be done. I needed to have that chemo and for two reasons. Obviously, I didn’t want to go through this for again and “til death do us part” isn’t supposed to be just for a few years.

Like the previous appointment, I choose not to eat and it came in handy as we were able to schedule a ct scan for that day. If you have never had a ct scan trust me you don’t want to simply because of the barium shakes you have to drink. I also had to have a pick line put in for the dye. I had to drink 2 of the barium shakes in the first hour. Actually I had to inhale them in like 10 minutes then wait an hour later to have the third and final one. By then, it was time for my ct scan which was so weird. Or at least the dye is what is so weird. The nurse made sure to tell me that it would make me feel warm all over and eventually feel like I basically urinated all over myself. She injected it into my pick line and I was like okay whatever I don’t feel anything except for the hotness. Then out of nowhere it felt like someone punctured my bladed and thus urine ran all over me. What is worse was that I actually had to pee so badly! And of course I thought it made me actually pee on myself. I thought this until I stood up to see that I hadn’t actually done it. Wow totally weird!

So we had to wait a week before our appointment with the oncologist Dr. Castillos before we would know of the results from the ct scan. Or so we thought. Dr. Petrus called me a couple of days later and left me a voicemail telling me that everything came back normal. So that was a relief.

A few days passed and it was time to meet with the oncologist. Of course since it was our first time meeting we had a ton of questions for him to answer for us. Only problem was that he couldn’t actually answer most of them. We wanted to know if I could do the treatment strictly outpatient, when would my treatment start, and if I should do sperm banking since he never once brought it up. All he kept doing was going out of the office to get some handouts for us to read instead of being able to answer the questions. So we left frustrated and I was informed I had to go have some pulmonary tests done to get a baseline on my respiratory system before the chemo since some of the meds involved can wreak havoc on your lungs; one of the main reasons Lance Armstrong only chose to have 1 round of BEP since he depended on his lungs so much for cycling. I also had to collect my urine for a 24 hour period and then get some more blood drawn when I brought my urine collection back in for my next appointment.

So a few hours passed by before it was time for my pulmonary tests. Again, I had to register with Nash Healthcare before I could go do my tests. While the pulmonary tests did not involve any needles it was quite hard. I had to do several types of breathing tests so they could see how good my lungs were and if there were any present issues before chemo. As far as I know they were normal, but were so tiring just like having a workout.

So the next day I have to start collecting my urine in a BRIGHT orange 3 liter jug. This was so weird; having to carry a jug with me each time to the restroom. And why was it so big? I drank my normal amount of liquids (usually water anyways) which was about 2.5 quarts of water. After the 24 hours had passed I now knew why that jug was so huge. I guess you never really know how many times you have to pee on a daily basis until you have to collect it. But really, 3 liters of urine that’s a lot! Even more embarrassing about this was having to carry it back into the doctor’s office so of course I put it in a grocery bag. Next, I had to get my blood drawn so of course I had to ask how many vials they were going to need since I hate needles. They needed 3 so they could take a look at my metabolic panel before chemo. Blah! It wasn’t so bad and so far the IV in my hand was the thing that had hurt the most when it comes to all of the needles that I got stuck with.

Remember when I said we were frustrated with the doctor? Another reason was that it took them two days to call me back to tell me what my options were with sperm banking. They actually told me Chapel Hill (UNC) was my only option. We already knew ourselves that it wasn’t as I had called around in Greenville and the Leo Jenkins Cancer Center told me that ECU’s Women’s Physicians actually could assist me with sperm banking. They had no idea that there was such a place in Greenville. Granted, they were more expensive, but way more convenient with us only having one car. I told them that I wouldn’t need an appointment at UNC and would make my own appointment at ECU Women’s Physicians. So I called ECU Women’s Physicians to make my appointment. My first appointment was on November 2, 2009.

They made sure to tell me that I had to refrain from “ejaculation” (their words) for at least 2 days. They also pointed out later on a few days before my appointment that at most 4 days is the most days that I could refrain from “ejaculation”. This was news to me since I assumed the more “waiting” would amount to a larger amount of a specimen, but guess I was wrong.

As time passed before my sperm banking appointment, the wifey and I talked back and forth with each other, and thus we decided that I should ask for a referral to Pitt County Memorial Hospital since the wifey works in Greenville and would be a lot easier on her to visit while she was at work. It took three days for someone to call us back and get the referral to happen. Another reason we didn’t like this doctor office. My first appointment with the new oncologist at Leo Jenkins Cancer Center was on November 3, 2009 which was actually rescheduled for November 4, 2009 since the oncologists was going to be out of the office on the original appointment date.

So it’s finally time for my appointment with the new oncologist at Leo Jenkins Cancer Center, Dr. Atluri. While we were waiting a guy came in that looked like he was already going through chemo as he had already lost all of his hair including eyebrows and all facial hair. That was kind of depressing to see. Nevertheless we trucked on! We finally got called back into the patient room to see Dr. Atluri. We met with her for awhile and she was able to answer all of our questions. She made sure to tell us about the hair issue. Most lose their hair after the first week of chemo. She even went so far as to say to research about BEP chemo, but not to take it lightly since it affects everyone differently. She assured us that as long as I listen to her and take all of the meds they’ll be giving me, that I’ll be just fine. She also mentioned that with all of the meds I’ll have to take home that I “shouldn’t” get sick and will only have to deal with fatigue. So we shall see! She scheduled me to see her on Tuesday, November 9, 2009 and then that same day I would be admitted into the hospital to start my chemo. She said more than likely I would go home that Saturday since I had completed both sperm banking appointments.

With all of this set to happen and with the fact that we knew I would lose my hair, the wifey and me decided we should have some fun with it and shave it off and she convinced me to leave a strip so I could have a mohawk for about a week before it all fell out. So we made an appointment with the best hair stylist in Greenville, Tara. She was all excited when we got there and was excited about giving me a mohawk. Good thing I can’t see without my glasses because it made the process a lot easier. Now that it’s all said and done, it wasn’t so bad after all! I even think I’ll do one again come April 2010 for Relay for Life; possibly even dye it purple!

Tagged as: Cancer, donations, medical bills, shag lessons, testicular cancer